Exotic Weather of Habitable Exoplanets

[Sindri]

What interesting weather or climate variations from Earth normal could exist on a habitable exoplanet in a hard science fiction game?

[Dammann]

The real answer is probably "not enough data." But that is dull.

But it is reasonable to think that planets with oceans and more tidal force could have some crazy tidal zones. More heat means more energy, so hotter planets might have more extreme weather (and more erosion). A planet with a thinner atmosphere might have a bigger temperature swing between day and nigh, with morning and evening winds. A planet closer to its star, or with a more flare-prone star might have more spectacular aurora borealis-type displays.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Dammann

. More heat means more energy, so hotter planets might have more extreme weather (and more erosion). A planet with a thinner atmosphere might have a bigger temperature swing between day and nigh, with morning and evening winds. .

You're getting closer with your thin atmosphere planet but no, more heat does not necessarily mean more weather. Venus has an atmosphre 90x denser than Earth and hundreds of degrees K hotter but it also has very little weather that we know of at the surface because the heat is uniformly distributed.

It's heat moving from the equator to the poles that's the big wheel that makes the smaller wheels of the climate machine go around on Earth.

This is what makes the people who want to blame any particular sttretch of bad weather on "global warming"......well, lets call them "naive". If you concentrated the increase in heat at the eqautor so there was a bigger differential with the Artic regions you might get worse hurricane seasons.

If you do the opposite and warm the poles more than the equator you could get less intense hurricane seasons. If the relative curve of heat exchange stays aboutt eh same so does the climate (barring over factars)

So to make the weather "more interesting" than it is on Earth you need more change and you need to (in general) make it less smooth and incremental.

[Polkageist]

Ah, think more creatively! There's lot of interesting weather patterns so maybe start with something cool and work backwards to figure out how it might work if necessary.

How about a literal Tornado Alley?
On this planet there exists an area or areas that are affected by daily (more or less) tornadoes that are confined to a narrow strip of land, perhaps a valley or canyon. Much like old faithful here on earth, these tornadoes occur with regularity and predictability, and can safely be observed from the edges of their domain.

[dcarson]

Mars gets global dust storms.

[Flyndaran]

I wonder if near permanent storms like Jupiter's big eye could exist on habitable planets.

Also tidally locked planets could have a zone of earth like temperatures. Now that would create interesting permanent weather patterns.

[ericthered]

you can also mess around with extreme terrain that generates extreme weather.

Larry Niven's known space has a planet called canyon. In the process of a war the hostile world was inadvertently partially terraformed when a weapon put a huge gash in the side. Most of the planet was mars like and uninhabitable. The gash collected an ocean and people lived in it.

I think Niven also has a planet where only the mountains are suitable for human life.

you can also change the length of the day, which will change the weather. We have daily patterns that set up each day (which way the breeze blows at the ocean). If you increase the length of the day, that changes.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I wonder if near permanent storms like Jupiter's big eye could exist on habitable planets.

That might not result in a planet we'd call habitable. You should be able to get large, long-lasting (if not necessarily permanent) storms on planets which are very flat and preferably covered with water; hurricanes tend to break up when they hit land, and weather patterns in general are disrupted by mountain ranges.

[Mgellis]

Two sources that may be helpful...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitab..._dwarf_systems

http://www.space.com/13950-habitable...lock-life.html

Short version...some experts think tidally locked planets around M-type stars would have a huge hurricane at the spot pointing directly at the sun with winds and rain radiating outwards in a spiral pattern across the rest of the planet.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I wonder if near permanent storms like Jupiter's big eye could exist on habitable planets.

You don't have some aliens that live on a gas giant in one of your settings? That was unexpected.